Food

The Great Burger Battle: Holy Cow vs. Burger Tap & Shake (Quarterfinals)

Two local eateries go bun-to-bun for a spot in the finals.

Local joints roll out their big burgers for the game: the Guatemalan Gutbuster at Holy Cow (left), and Burger Tap & Shake's Big Daddy (right).

Welcome to the Great Burger Battle quarterfinals! We’ve come a long way since the first food fight, when 16 strong teams entered the game. Now only the final four remain: Holy Cow, Burger Tap & Shake, City Burger, and Plan B Burger Bar.

Today’s matchup pits two independent patty joints against one another: Del Rey’s Holy Cow versus Burger Tap & Shake in Foggy Bottom. Each has a strong backing; the Divine Bovine comes to us from the Pork Barrel BBQ team, whereas BTS is part of chef Jeff Tunks’s PassionFood Hospitality family (Acadiana, Penn Commons among others). Both pack a mean patty, and tend to get creative with toppings—we’ve taken down pulled pork-crowned creations at Holy Cow, and beef chili-sauced stacks at Burger Tap & Shake.

It’s a pretty even matchup, but only one team can go on to the finals. Who will it be? Show us in the polls.


Food Editor

Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.